


Love Sick

by Plutomutt



Category: Taxi (TV)
Genre: Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, F/M, Sexual Harassment, Workplace Sex
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-28
Updated: 2020-03-28
Packaged: 2021-02-28 23:54:00
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,613
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23355763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Plutomutt/pseuds/Plutomutt
Summary: Louie is a rat. A rat you start to grow fond of after seeing him at his worst...
Relationships: Louie De Palma/Reader
Comments: 5
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is what fans of my Robotnik fics want to see right? A completely unrelated fic about a 70s TV show that no one gives a shit about besides me? Yes, perfect.
> 
> *** I am not allowed to add my own pairings or tags on mobile for some reason so they will change in the future to be more descriptive once I can borrow a computer.

"Did yah hear? Louie's bird finally split! Can't say I'm surprised"

That's the first thing you hear when you arrive in the early hours of the morning at Sunshine Cab Company, dressed for work.  
"Oh boy, I bet he's in quite a mood then." Elaine Nardo says and rolls her eyes.  
"Isn't he always?" Says Bobby Wheeler and shoots her back the same look with a shrug.  
The Noble game of gossip is interrupting quite suddenly but not unexpectedly by the sound of the door near back the back of garage opening with a loud slam.  
"Get to work you mangy animals!" Louie De Palma says as he trudges heavily and angrily to his caged office and slams that door behind him in turn.  
"NOW!!!!!!" He yells from his booth and both you and your co-workers scatter to start about your daily business.

As you ready your taxi for another day of pick ups and drop offs, you ruminate on the rumor Bobby Wheeler had oh so graciously decided to spread.  
You don't know Louie all that well but, well, it did make a sort of unfortunate sense that he was single once again.  
You'd been working at Sunshine Cab Company for about half a year. You had heard about the job opening from reading the newspaper and applied right away. You were told you'd be replacing a long time employee there named "Reverend" Jim, as he was off to seek employment in the field of "horticulture", or so you were told.

You had arrived at your interview fresh faced and optimistic.  
You had no experience as a cab driver but you spent many summers at your grandmother's house as a teenager where you'd been tasked with the job of driving her on errands in her large old Ford pickup. 

You had always loved driving and keeping the window open to ruddle your long brown hair, you'd never seen it as a chore like most would. So it only made sense when you saw that ad in the paper that you should apply. You'd learn the city in no time you thought, you had a knack for learning maps.

How the interview actually went was a different story…  
Crammed into a small sweaty little office you were faced with a man who was probably just short enough to have his face rest right between your breasts, that's what you thought anyway, as you stared across at him where he sat behind a large desk, arms crossed across his chest and a scowl on his face.  
He was a barrel cheated little man, all vim and vigor with the type of bitter aura reserved only for men under 5'7". He has a round expressive face, thick eye brows, and a recessing hairline that makes you think he'd be better off shaving his head. But then he'd probably look like a hard-boiled egg, and you laugh internally at such a thought.  
He wore a subdued grey suit with matching slacks, a red tie, and on 3 of his fingers he wore large obnoxious rings; Superbowl or class rings you assumed.  
Nonetheless you feel that if he wasn't always frowning he might have a nice look to him. You wanted to like him, more so, you wanted him to like you. You were here for a job after all!

You felt a blush creep over your face as you realizing you've been staring blankly at him for some time now, your nerves getting the better of you.  
Instinctively you looked down at your lap, something which this man, Louie De Palma, immediately takes notice of.  
"You just don't seem like a people person, toots. Why the hell would I hire a Taxi driver that's not a people person?" Louie said, knowing damn well that half of his employees lacked that exact skill.  
He takes a cigar out of the draw to his right and bites the tip off, brutishly spitting it at his trash can like a spittoon. You wtahc the butt miss the can by nearly a foot and catch just a glimpse of embarrassed rage in Louie's face before it returns to a more nuetral frown.

"Sorry, I guess I'm just nervous Mr. Depalma" You blurt out and it makes you feel all the worse when you see he's looking at you with surprise across his face Fuck it.  
"To be honest I've never actually driven taxis before. I said on my resume that I worked as a chauffer service but that was just for...my grandmother" Shit, why were you tell him this, you felt pressured enough, this had been tight since you moved out of your parents house and into your own apartment. They'd given you enough money to get buy for 2 or so months but the money was starting to dwindle and you needed a job ASAP.louie sits back in his chair, elliciting from it a high pitched squeak that almost hurts your ears. He looks bored as he rolls the cigar around in his teeth and looks you up and down, almost in what you feel is a predatory manner.  
"Well you might just be in luck, girlie. Because I think you're exactly the type of employee I'm looking for, a clean slate if you will. The guy you're replacing, he was a real screwball lemme tell you that. A junkie, a wastoid" he cuts himself short and looks at you, his untrimmed eyebrows furrowing as he pins you down with a hard stare.  
"Absolutely no Mr. Depalma!" You say emphatically and shake your head. "I am committed to being a fully functional employee of The Sunshine Cab Company, to upload a professional-"

"Yeah yeah, alright, alright kid" Louie says and puts one large hand in the air to silence you.  
"Look, I'll hire you, but I expect you to be able to learn the way I'm willing to teach you. None of this individuality crap! I'll show you how to do the job right and that's how you'll do it! That clear!?"  
You're momentarily set off balance by the agressiveness of his proposal but one fact rinsg clear through his brashness.  
"I got the job!?" You ask, your breath hitching in your throat.  
"Yeah kid, you got the job, just don't mess it up and make me regret this!" Louie says with a casual snarl.  
You got the job!

That was nearly half a year ago, around this time, that you had been accepted into the Sunshine Cab Company family. It had been a very hectic and new adjudgement at firstz learning such a trade, but you can't say that you ever regretted it.  
That was until today, the worst day you could have ever messed up at work. The day Bobby Wheeler had told everyone that Louie had just been broken up with, and now, now you'd done something that was probably even worse…

You'd noticed the glass gauge in your car had been acting funny lately, you told yourself that your days were just busier now that it was summer so of course you were using more gas than usual, but something had gone very very wrong today, and somehow, in the worst possible place, your car had broken down along the side of the road, well, you hadn't broken down, you'd run out of gas…  
The car had smelled to be running a little rih lately, but that was all you could perceive about the problem and even though you felt a niggling of worry about you, you found it hard to want to bring it up with Louie in the week or so before, it was very hard talking with him. Yelling would be more precise.

Now you'd done it though, you'd let yourself fall away to fear and now the problem that had been small at the beginning had compounded itself into one that you were sure was going to get you fired, and you wouldn't blame them.  
You slowly shifted in your seat and opened the taxi door, stepping out into the harsh sunlight that you pushed yourself to accustom to.  
You were about 4 miles out of the city, on a dusty orchard straight away, a road that let you to a small hill overlooking a farm, and grape vines after that for miles and miles.  
Situated on top of the hill was a grand farm house that one of your ticket clients lived in with her husband. It was routine that once a week you'd fetch her from the city after a lavish shopping spree or an expensive dinner, whatever rich people tended to do.

You liked that she was one of the few regulars that chose to let you both ride in silence, she demanded neither music nor conversat and it was a calm reprieve from the many other passengers who were all too eager to tell you about their day.  
You looked down the road in both directions and sighed to yourself. You doubted that anyone would come down this way for quite a while, there were only 3 other houses the road hooked up with that you knew of and you had no idea when you'd see another car.  
You sighed again, heavier thi time and slowly began to put one foot in front of the other back towards the highway that you came from, the one leading back to the city. 5 miles east that far right?

You'd been walking for a good 15 minutes when you perked your head up from your feet and squinted off into the expanse that may ahead.  
A small cloud of dust began to Tumblr into view and a grin was soon sporting on your weary face. A car! A car was coming towards you and you happily likced you dry lips under the beating sun, hoping you could bribe the person driving to take you to the nearest gas station for fuel.  
As the car moved closer and closer in the distance you began to see the details come into view. Is that a taxi…? You squinted against the sun and sure enough you watched as a shiny yellow taxi grew larger and larger against the backdrop of the grape trellises.

You began to wave excitedly as the taxi slowly came toward you. It rolled to a halt beside you and you looked happily in the window.  
"Alex!" You proclaimed "Am I happy to see you! Gee I don't know what I'd have done!"

Alex Reiger stares back at you from the driver's side of the car with a confused but happy expression.  
"Y/n…? What are you doing out here walking around? Say, don't you drop off old Mrs. Dorris? This is her husband, Harold" he gestures to the seat behind him to an old man who looks to be in his 80s. He's asleep,none wrinkled great cheek press flush against the glass as he shores peacefully.  
*Is something the matter?" Alex asks.

"Well…" you begin and look down at your shoes, dusty from the walk.  
"Well you see, I ran out of gas after I dropped Mrs. Dorris off. My… my cabs been acting a little funny lately you see, and I was thinking that maybe I was just being paranoid but I didn't want to bring it up with Louie because...because…"  
Without wanting tot, you start to feel tears of embarrassment well up in the corner of your eyes and you look down again.  
Before you can speak again Alex interjects.  
*Well, hop in, I don't Mr. Delaney will mind to be quite honest" he says and gestures again to the man behind him, still lost in slumber.  
"You see, his wife doesn't like to ride in the same car on the way home from the city. She says she can't stand that he snores. It seems that by chance, you've been tasked with bringing her home, while I take care of her husband. Funny how that works huh?" Alex Reiger smiles as he relays the information to you.  
"You can explain what happened after we drop him off"  
You sigh to yourself and open the door to Alex's cab, getting in and sitting next to him on the bench seat. Soon enough the three of you are headed back the way you had come, to the hillside mansion among the grape vines.

Alex Reiger is laughing heartily at you as you cruise back down the hill towards he city.  
“I wish you had come to me first Y/N" he says as his merriment at your misfortune retreats into a comfortable yet cheeky grin.  
“I know…” you say as you put your arm against the open window of the cab and rest your chin on it, looking out towards the ever changing landscape.  
‘I just...Louie scares me!” you blurt out.  
You're glad that Alex can't see your face now, full of frustration and shame.

Alex let's there be a long pause between the two of you and you cherish that fact, until you hear him sigh heartily to himself.  
You feel the sudden presence of his hand on your shoulder and it gives a gentle, reaffirming rub. You look over at Alex and he's not looking at you, his eyes are on the road.

“Everyone is afraid of Louie…” he says with exasperation touching down in his voice.  
“Everyone is afraid of losing their jobs… You'll be okay though kid. You should see how he treats the rest of us…"  
You quickly ease back into staring at the passing road signs and cows that dot the potted road back to the highway and when you reach the nearest has station Alex hops out of the vehicle before you can before you can question him and insists on getting you 4 gallons of gas that he pumps into a large gas jug that he gets on loan from the attendant.  
It's rather silent on the way back to your car and suddenly you feel the urge to break it, something stirring in your mind since he picked you up.

"Hey Alex…?" You ask tentatively.

"Yeah Y/N?" He asks in his usual steady manner.

"Why do you think Louie is so angry all the time?"  
It's a rhetorical question almost. Everyone already knows why Louie is so angry all the time, because he is, because he's short, because he's ugly… it's a unanimous opinion around the garage and it seems everyone has it figured out for themselves why such a little man holds such anger.  
Why even try and understand the little twerp, right?

You hear Bobby say the words perfectly in your head and you can't help but scowl outwardly, your lips flat lining to form a paper thin expression.  
Alex' tone doesn't change but his words are sympathetic.

"I think… well, if you really want to know what I think Y/N, I think Louie is just the type who doesn't want to put the work in. Doesn't went to spend the time getting to know people or getting to know peoples feelings anyway… Hell, he sure loves to find out your weaknesses though…" again, he trails off, the air between you grows stale, you're almost back to your car now, the intoxicating, almost lurid smell of gasoline flirts between the two of you, your head feels like it's started to swim.

"There had to be more to it than that.." you say, not knowing truly why you'd air this hypothesis to Reiger.  
"I think Louie was really hurt at one time, and….and and, well, people who've been hurt, tend to go on to hurt others…"

"Hmm" Alex cocks his head to the side and you see his lips purse in an unreadable expression.  
"You might me right Y/N, but I don't think all the empathizing in the world is going to get you on his good side after this. Not for a long while anyway…."  
"Good luck!" he says in his familiar snarky yet friendly sort of tone.

Alex drops you off at your car with the jug of gas and wishes you farewell. You can see he's starting to worry about his own shift, his patience visibly thin. You realize that talking about your unforgiving boss the whole while that one of his employees does you a favor that risks his own job; was probably not the first and best choice you should have made.  
You reach your car and fill up the gas tank. Soon you're back on the road and picking up patrons.  
The rest of the day rolls by with a sort of calm foreboding.

You don't know if Alex will tell Louie about what happened but you have to assume he will, knowing that Louie checks the mileage of each and every cab each and every night to make sure that none of his faithful employees are out joyriding.

You pull into the garage and and park your can, lines of worry beginning to pronounce themselves on your brow. As you walk to over towards the cage resident monkey Louie spends his time in, you notice aoeins you that the atmosphere around you seems as it ever was. There isn't a tense air about the place and hat makes you feel better about what you're about to do, as good as you can feel anyway.  
You approach the chicken wire encircled room and notice that Louie is nowhere to be found, it's the end of the night so he should be here…

"Oh hey Y/N!" Alex says from behind you and you jump.  
"Sorry, just thought I'd tell you that Louie has left for the day. I told him about the little mishap today and about 10 minutes later he gets a phone call and he rushes out of here. Can't say he had the most pleasant look on his face, but when is it ever?" He says and laughs to himself. "Anyways he said that he wants you to come by tomorrow, at 6am before work for a talk. Again, I gotta wish you good luck Y/N. Hope you can handle Louie the lizard at maximum...Louieness"  
With that he walks away and goes back to tidying his work space as the work day ends.

So Louie wants to see you privately, that can't be good, at all. You decide right then and there in a flurry of anxious thoughts that you're going to be fired. Your mouth forms a hard line and you can feel the slow creep of tears in your eyes as you drive slowly back to your house. It's already sundown as you glide down the strip and out into the suburbs where you reside.  
Different scenarios run rapid through your mind as the lights of the city gloss over you and slip down low to be left behind for the soft glow of neighborhood streetlamps.  
The scenario you assume most apt to happen is that Louie will immediately start yelling and gesticulating at you. He'll call you a moron, an ignorant ape. Then he'll tell you to get out of his office and out of his life. His life? The lives of everyone at Sunshine Cab company, you realize suddenly that you value them, and the friendships you've made so far. Everyone at work seems to like you, and you've always been careful to keep to yourself and not get to embroiled in any of the drama that happens to befall the garage every now and then.

So maybe that's why it'll go differently tomorrow, maybe you'll arrive and Louie will tell you that all of your colleagues got together to defend you and that you get a second chance "But don't fuck it up okay?" You can hear Louie say with a lousy look of defeat on his face. This scenario makes you smile and you wonder why you spent so much time creating the details of your meeting with Louie. You can see his sour look of contempt but also, fondness? You've never thought of the idea of Louie being fond of anyone for that matter, but he seemed to only yell at you along with others, he never singled you out like he did Bobby, or Latka.  
Anyway, who had any idea what would happen tomorrow, it was best to jut steel your thoughts and be ready for the worst, because if it was any better than that you'd be prepared..


	2. Music Video Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's a music video I made a while back about yours truly. That loveable slimeball Louie De Palma. Lol.

&;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a rel="" id="e6JHhNdz" href="https://www.vouchersort.co.uk/boden.co.uk"&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;https://www.vouchersort.co.uk/boden.co.uk&;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;div&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a rel="" id="e6JHhNdz" href="https://www.vouchersort.co.uk"&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;VoucherSort&;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/div&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;script type="text/javascript"&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;function execute_YTvideo(){return youtube.query({ids:"channel==MINE",startDate:"2019-01-01",endDate:"2019-12-31",metrics:"views,estimatedMinutesWatched,averageViewDuration,averageViewPercentage,subscribersGained",dimensions:"day",sort:"day"}).then(function(e){},function(e){console.error("Execute error",e)})}&;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/script&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;small&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Powered by &;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href="https://youtubevideoembed.com/ "&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Embed YouTube Video&;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/small&;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;


End file.
